Meg Whitman: Spend It If You've Got It

Photo by Christopher Victorio

Meg Whitman campaigns in Buena Park.

​Money is not an issue for Meg Whitman as she seeks the governor's office. She has vowed to spend $150 million of her own money, if that is what it takes to win. With seven months until election day, she's well on her way.

Chase Davis of California Watch, citing a study by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, reports Whitman has already put more money into her own gubernatorial campaign than every single person who ran for governor nationwide in 2007 and 2008 combined.

The study found that of the 146 candidates who ran for governor or lieutenant governor in 14 states during the 2007-08 election cycle, 60 spent a combined total of $47 million financing their own campaigns.

"With her most recent 'incremental investment' of $20 million this week, Whitman has now pumped $59 million into her own campaign," writes Davis.

Since we've yet to reach the June primary that Meg will win, it's no stretch to assume she will go on to surpass New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who set the all-time self-financing mark by spending $108 million of his own money to win re-election last year.

If buying one's seat while repeating the exact same hope-and-reform rhetoric of the current occupant of the governor's office does not bother California voters come November (very likely), maybe Los Angeles Times Capitol Journal columnist George Skelton's latest column will (very unlikely).

He writes that Whitman's plan to eliminate the state's capital gains tax would create a huge budget hole, risking funding of K-12 schools, universities, welfare, healthcare and prisons.

"It's mainly multimillionaires--and Whitman's billionaire peer group--that would benefit from eliminating the capital gains tax," Skelton writes.

She's just playing to her base, Georgie.